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ATPM 13.01
January 2007

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Desktop Pictures

Fireworks

This Month’s Desktop Pictures

Happy New Year! This month’s set of desktop photos features a new collection of fireworks to help celebrate the arrival of 2007. This set was photographed by Lee Bennett in St. Louis, Missouri, standing atop the Edward Jones Dome during the 2005 Independence Day fireworks show. The camera was a Nikon D100, and all photos went through Adobe Photoshop CS2 to receive a subtle color saturation and contrast bump and to have a few of the camera’s stuck pixels erased.

Previous Months’ Desktop Pictures

Pictures from previous months are listed in the desktop pictures archives.

Downloading All the Pictures at Once

Some browsers can download an entire set of desktop pictures at once.

iCab

Use the Download command to download “Get all files in same path.”

OmniWeb

Choose “Save Linked ‣ Images…” from the File menu.

Safari

Use this Automator workflow.

Contributing Your Own Desktop Pictures

If you have a picture, whether a small series or just one fabulous or funny shot, feel free to send it to editor@atpm.com and we’ll consider publishing it in next month’s issue. Have a regular print but no scanner? Don’t worry. E-mail us, and we tell you where to send it so we can scan it for you. Note that we cannot return the original print, so send us a copy.

Placing Desktop Pictures

Mac OS X 10.3.x and 10.4.x

Choose “System Preferences…” from the Apple menu, click the “Desktop & Screen Saver” button, then choose the Desktop tab. In the left-side menu, select the desktop pictures folder you want to use.

You can also use the pictures with Mac OS X’s built-in screen saver. Select the Screen Saver tab which is also in the “Desktop & Screen Saver” System Preferences pane. If you put the ATPM pictures in your Pictures folder, click on the Pictures Folder in the list of screen savers. Otherwise, click Choose Folder to tell the screen saver which pictures to use.

Mac OS X 10.1.x and 10.2.x

Choose “System Preferences…” from the Apple menu and click the Desktop button. With the pop-up menu, select the desktop pictures folder you want to use.

You can also use the pictures with Mac OS X’s built-in screen saver. Choose “System Preferences…” from the Apple menu. Click the Screen Saver (10.1.x) or Screen Effects (10.2.x) button. Then click on Custom Slide Show in the list of screen savers. If you put the ATPM pictures in your Pictures folder, you’re all set. Otherwise, click Configure to tell the screen saver which pictures to use.

Mac OS X 10.0.x

Switch to the Finder. Choose “Preferences…” from the “Finder” menu. Click on the “Select Picture…” button on the right. In the Open Panel, select the desktop picture you want to use. The panel defaults to your ~/Library/Desktop Pictures folder. Close the “Finder Preferences” window when you are done.

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Reader Comments (3)

Cyberrabbit · January 6, 2007 - 16:33 EST #1
You can even have LIVE fireworks on your desktop (at least if you're running 10.4 or later :

1) Get the "Pyrotheque" screensaver by toastycode
( http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/30259 ), requires Tiger 10.4 or later

Get yourself that nifty little FREE script named bgscreensaver (bg stands for background) by bgstech :
http://www.bgstech.com/download.php?bgscreensaver_1.1.sit (requires 10.3.9 or later)

Install Pyrotheque, open System Preferences: Screensavers and select Pyrotheque

Run bgscreensaver

Enjoy.
Lee Bennett (ATPM Staff) · January 6, 2007 - 18:36 EST #2
Cyberrabbit - okay, fine, but I have to say two things. First, on anything older than a G5, running an active screensaver behind your desktop will have a significantly adverse impact on your system performance. Second, if you're going to run a fireworks screen saver, at least point to one that doesn't look like its graphics came from an Atari 2600 game! Something like this one.
Cyberrabbit · January 7, 2007 - 08:11 EST #3
OK - to each his own, no need to shout. No doubt that bgscreensaver necessitates a decent graphics card (BTW there's an aftermarket 1900XT for G5s). I didn't know Skyrocket, so I gave it a try. The fireworks rendering is fine, sure, but not necessarily THAT more realistic than Pyrotheque's (ok, it's got reflection effects and a sort of 3D), but the rendering of the sky and ground is only so-so, a large empty space, more annoying rather than fascinating to my eyes at least. But, as I said, to each his own :=)

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